I have recorded Sarasate‘s Introduction and Tarantella with the London Philharmonic at the All Saints Church in Tooting, United Kingdom. The church temperature was very cold and the musicians of the woodwind section were wearing overcoats. My fingers were helped by the cold conditions, so I happened to play very fast in a natural way.
Sarasate’s Introduction and Tarantella, Op. 43 for Violin and Orchestra
Paganini dominated the violin stage in the first half of the 19th century, and it was believed that no other technical wizard would ever take his place – they didn’t count on Pablo Martin Meliton Sarasate y Navascuez. The “Spanish Paganini,” with his unmatched technical brilliance and bewitchingly elegant style, reigned over that stage for the last half of the century. Composers were eager to write for him, and many of these works still hold audiences today: Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, Saint-Saens’ B Minor Concerto and Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, to mention a few of the best known.
Unlike Paganini, who wrote and played his own concerti, Sarasate wrote only short pieces, among these the Spanish Dances and the inescapable Zigeunerweisen are the most popular. The Introduction and Tarantella, a late work, has all the traits of his style in that the melody is always predominant. Like Chopin’s embellishments, the technical display never obtrudes on the melody even in the most coruscant moments – and there are many. That he was most at home in a Spanish element is evident in this work, for he even makes the tarantella sound Spanish!
